stevens



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN H. STEVENS, or NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, AND JOHN E. HINDON HYDE,

' or NEW YORK, N. Y.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 408,442, dated August 6, 1889.

Application filed August 2, 1888. Serial No. 281,798. (Specimens) T on whom it 17mg concern.-

Be it known that we, JOHN H. STEVENS, of Newark, county of Essex, and State of New Jersey, and JOHN E. HINDoN HYDE, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Oigars, Oheroots, &c., of which the following is a specification.

The object of our invention has been to produce a cigar which shall obviate the wellknown difficulties found by smokers in lighting a cigar in a high wind or draft, and for which purposes fusees and other matches not readily extinguished by currents of air have been heretofore designed and used. Such means of lighting heretofore used have, however, been objectionable owing to the odor generally arising from Such inflammable substances as' have been used in the composition of such fusees, and also are inconvenient, owing to the fact that smokers are not always provided with Such fusees and cannot always easily obtain them.

It has been our object to produce a cigar which can be lighted readily in a high Wind or draft by the flame of an ordinary match or a spark or fire of any kind without the necessity of applying such flame or spark to the lighting end of the cigar for more than an instant, and we have accomplished such result in the following way: We dip the tip of a cigar or cheroot which is to be lighted to the depth of about one-eighth of an inch (more or less) inany one of the following solutions: v

First solution-We put two parts of dextrine into six parts of water and one part of alcohol, and take of this mixture one part, mixing this part with one part of a saturated solution of chemically-pu re nitrate of potash in water.

Second solutionrrwe prepare a mixture of two parts of dextrine with six parts of water and one part of alcohol, and We mix one part of this solution with one part of a saturated solution of a chemically-pure nitrate of potash in water and one part of a saturated solution of chemically-pure chlorate of potash in water.

Third s0Zatz'on.-WVe prepare a solution 0 two parts of dextrine with three parts of water and one part of alcohol, and mix one part of this solution with one part of a saturated solution of chemically-pure nitrate of potash in water.

The above solutions can be very cheaply made, and dry readily upon the tobacco of the cigar, so that a cigar which has been dipped into them does not afterward differ in appearance from the ordinary cigar, while these solutions do not impart any odor or any flavor of any kind to the tobacco, so that they can be used without detriment upon the finest grades of Havana cigars. These solutions all act in substantially the same way; but we prefer that first described.

In lighting one of our cigars it is onlynecessary to touch a single small portion of the end to be lighted with the flame of a match for a single instant, as can be done even in a gale of Wind, and the light thus communicated to the end of the cigar will gradually extend over the entire end of the cigar which has been dipped and causes a gradual kindling of the tobacco without a flash of flame, even without drawing by the smoker, thus insuring a light; and a very important additional advantage arising from our invention is that a cigar which has been treated by our method cannot be imperfectly or unevenly lighted, as is now so often the case, because the light of itself will extend over the whole end of the cigar and light every portion of the tobacco at the end to the extent to which the cigar has been dipped or treated.

We are aware that other solutions exist which will effect the same purpose as those above described, and we therefore do not limit ourselves to the use of any particular solution which will accomplish the same result.

We are aware that it has been proposed to apply to a cigar inflammable solutions, or solutions which on evaporating leave inflam mable deposits. Our invention is distin guishable from these by the non-inflammable char- 5 acter of the solution and the fact that the tobacco of the cigar itself supplies the ingredient necessary to secure a composition of the requisite inflammable or tinder-like char acter.

2. A cigar having its lighting end impregnated with nitrate of potash and dextrinc to form, in combination With the tobacco, a tinder at the end of the cigar, substantially as set forth.

New York, November 13, 1888.

JOHN H. STEVENS. J. E. IIINDON HYDE.

Witnesses:

CHAS. G. T. WAHLE, J r., \V. II. BERRIGAN, Jr. 

